Student Voice: The culture of violence within our SU

Following the ongoing controversy over the LSESU Palestine Society’s commemoration of terrorists, LSE student Liam Marc Robson reflects on the LSESU’s handling of the incident in this article cross-posted from The Beaver. All views are his own, and do not necessarily represent those of Student Rights.

“What is terrorism?” It used to be so simple.

A man claiming political motives breaks into the home of a woman and tries to stab her and her elderly mother with a knife stolen from her own kitchen – that is terrorism; a thirteen-year-old boy hops on his bike after visiting his local candy store when he is stabbed in the neck, a legitimate target via his nationality – that is terrorism; a mother and her two-year-old child are stabbed and injured and two men killed by a man who wrote “let the revolution erupt” a day before picking up a knife and seeking out his targets – that is terrorism. Isn’t it?

Well, apologies everyone – it would seem I’m mistaken. In fact, upon bringing to the attention of LSE Students’ Union the fact that a prominent society and SU officer were loudly commemorating the perpetrators of the above acts (AmjadHatemal-Jundi, Hassan Manasra, and MuhannadHalabi, as it happens) and claiming to “stand with” their “resistance”, one of the questions posed to me was just that: “what is terrorism?”

I’d like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the SU for giving me the opportunity to reflect upon the fact that the targeted and politically-motivated attacking of a mother and her two-year old child may not in fact be terrorism. Out of ignorance I have stood.

A further question asked of me was whether those whom the LSESU Palestine Society sought to commemorate with their wonderfully creative pro-BDS banner, made with the help of the SU’s very own ‘Community and Welfare’ officer, and recent “Want the Truth about the clashes in Palestine?” exhibition that was held on School-owned premises, had in fact killed civilians?

Please, everyone, get with the programme: you knew the IDF like to train ‘em up young, but thirteen-year-old candy-toting boys on bikes – maybe not so civilian after all! Great!

In truth, I wasn’t at all surprised about the culture of violent extremism I encountered when I started university last month.

How could I be when the SU has previously voted down a motion seeking to condemn January’s massacre at the Charlie Hebdo offices and a Jewish supermarket in Paris; has set at the top of its agenda lobbying against the counter-extremism ‘Prevent’ programme despite the ever-growing line of prominent terrorists who have graduated from our various sister-colleges at the University of London; and – perhaps most tellingly of all – has chosen to twin itself with the Islamic University of Gaza.

I find the last point telling not only because I’m a heartless, Islamophobic Zionist, but because the Islamic University of Gaza is an institution at which the dean of Quranic Studies two-weeks-ago declared:

“...every Jew in Palestine is a combatant– even the children. Bombings should be carried out in the very heart of the enemy, in Haifa, Jaffa, Tel Aviv and Hadera, as was the case in the past, because that is what hurts the Jews.”

When I informed the LSESU General Secretary about the murderous anti-semitic rhetoric coming from our twin institution I was told that it was a “loose” twinning, so I guess I’ll chill out.

I may voice my concern as a non-Jewish British citizen, but it’s the LSE’s Israeli and Jewish students I’m concerned for.

The sickening truth of the current climate on campus is that were an Israeli student to fly out to Haifa this weekend to visit their parents, or a Jew to fly to Jerusalem, and they, through a twisted game of chance, were to be the victims of the next ‘Pro-Palestine’ attack on Israeli civilians, the buildings of their university could the next day be hosting events commemorating the legitimate acts of their brave murderers – and their SU wouldn’t have a thing to say about it.

On 5 March 2018, the King’s College Libertarian Society attempted to host an event featuring Israeli speaker Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute and controversial YouTube vlogger ‘Sargon of Akkad’ (Carl Benjamin). Both speakers were due to talk about freedom of expression as well as ‘objectivism’, the libertarian philosophy created by Russian-American author Ayn Rand. The protest group set up on Facebook called for the speakers to be no-platformed and described them as ‘white supremacists’, ‘neo-fascists’, ‘nazis’ and ‘alt-right’. Off-campus groups, including black-clad activists from the hardline “left-wing, anti-fascist” street movement Antifa, were also present. Unlike the student societies, Antifa violently shut down the event and forced it to be cancelled. The organisers of the event faced other institutional obstacles. The appalling scenes at KCL last night are evidence of an encroaching culture of intolerance and hostility towards free speech on university campuses in Britain.

On Monday 12 February, former Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Likud Party politician Dan Meridor gave a speech entitled ‘Threats and Challenges’ to students at the Strand Campus of King’s College London (KCL). This event, which was jointly organised by The Pinsker Centre and the KCL and City University Israel Societies, was met with vocal protests by students and activists affiliated to anti-Israel groups. Video footage shows how a crowd of around sixty protestors waved placards and sought to disrupt the event by screaming loudly outside the entrance to the lecture room where Meridor was speaking. Some protestors were reported to have photographed members of the audience leaving the room. The Union of Jewish Students (UJS) condemned what it called “disgraceful scenes”, and the President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews claimed that he would be in contact with the Principal of KCL to “gain assurances that there will be no repeat”. We hope that KCL can fully ensure that future speakers, Israeli or otherwise, are not subject to similar attempts at disruption in future, nor their audience subject to unacceptable levels of hostility and intimidation.

In the lead up to Holocaust Memorial Day 2018, the UK government has announced that it will partner with the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) and the Holocaust Education Trust (HET) in sending 200 university students from across the UK to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the former Nazi extermination camp in Poland. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Education have pledged to devote £144,000 to the project. They aim to train participants so that they can educate fellow students about anti-Semitism when they return to UK campuses. Student Rights is extremely supportive of the government’s decision to support students in this way. We hope it has a tangible impact at all levels of student life across the UK.